Improv is a spontaneous artistic expression, usually inspired by an audience suggestion. There generally aren’t props and sets, since the scene is being written in the moment by the performers. The two main types of improv comedy are long-form improv (think of it like a play with no script) and short-form improv (like Whose Line is it Anyway?). I like to say that in short-form improv, the audience is rooting for you to fail, because it’s funny. In long-form improv, the audience is rooting for you to succeed, so they don’t have to spend their whole night cringing.

Sketch comedy is pre-written scenes that are rehearsed and performed. Usually, there are props and sketch comedy can have sets involved. Think of Saturday Night Live.

Available parking is highlighted in GREEN (hover over the image) below. We have LIMITED parking spots behind the building, but be careful not to park on the south side of the lot. Those are our amazingly patient neighbors’ spots. Anywhere you see a Fort Wayne Improv (or Bigtooth Co.) parking sign is up for grabs, and our amazing neighbors are also allowing us to use the State Farm-labeled parking spots behind the building. If those are taken, there’s plenty of street parking on California and Alabama. We ALSO have amazing neighbors on the north side of E. State Blvd. in Painted Lady and the Allen County Public Library. Please be extremely respectful of our neighbors’ properties. They are kind enough to let us use their space, and we don’t want to damage that relationship. The library, in particularly, has 24-hour book drop boxes that we do NOT want to block. Also, BE CAREFUL crossing the street if you park on the north side of State (or as a general rule)! If you’re a visual learner, just check out the below image (the highlighted green areas are the parking places where you WON’T get towed).

We choose to sell Liquid Death (water in metal cans) instead of bottled water because we believe that any small steps we take to protect the earth are worth taking. While cans are not perfect, most studies show that metal cans are much more recyclable and environmentally-friendly than plastic bottles. They’re also better for your health, make the water taste better, and look a lot cooler. We do have a drinking fountain with a bottle filler, if you’d like to bring your own vessel!

First of all, there is NO drink/item minimum for our shows. We’re determined to be the best way you can spend a night out in Fort Wayne. We’ve been in a LOT of comedy clubs in our careers, and we have never liked being forced to buy stuff that we don’t necessarily want, and we certainly don’t want to put our servers into an awkward situation where they have to enforce an item minimum. We do have non-alcoholic drinks (including Liquid Death), beer, and canned wine for sale to drink. We have a drinking fountain with a bottle filler, so please feel free to bring in your own water bottles (we would actually love that for sustainability reasons). We have bags of chips for sale to snack on. You are more than welcome to carry in your own food if you’d like something more substantial. We just ask that you clean up after yourself so you’re not placing an extra burden on our servers.

Traditionally, improv theaters rely on their community members to do jobs at the theater, including service jobs. We want to keep those jobs as simple for our employees as possible, and eliminating the need for a cash drawer makes those jobs MUCH easier. Plus, we don’t have to remember to get cash before a show night.

Most of our shows are fully improvised. We try not to exceed a PG-13 rating, but because our shows are spontaneous and because we encourage our performers to perform freely, we cannot guarantee that a scene won’t lead us down a more adult path. As we grow, we will have more kid- and family-friendly options for both shows and classes.

Many moons ago, our Improv Yoda advised us that we should stay competitive with a movie ticket, so most of our shows are $15 (LESS expensive than most movies these days). As mentioned above, there is NO item minimum, so the cost to you isn’t actually “$15, plus two items.” The ticket processing fees are reasonable, and they are entirely kept by our ticket processor, so we’re not sneakily charging you more than $15. We also have some pay-what-you-like shows as another option. We don’t want people to be shut out of experiencing improv because of financials.

Yes! Part of the reason our ticket prices are what they are is because we want to pay performers. Paying performers is not the standard in the improv world, but we want to be part of a change for the better.

Thank you for making us part of your journey! Everyone comes to improv differently, but an explanation of our flexible class structure HERE.

YES! Even the most seasoned improvisers can always use more reps! Our workshops range from Beginner through Advanced (and we’re constantly adding more), so we’re confident that you’ll find something helpful to you.

We’re glad you asked! We love architectural history, and we’re learning more and more that our building has some STORIES! Most-recently, the building was Bigtooth Co. Furniture and Design. As far as we know, before that, it was Colvin Kitchen and Bath (which explains both the outhouse set into the marble of our entryway and the skylight in one of our bathrooms). The building was built in 1925, and the farthest back use that we’ve been able to find is that it was the original location of the Tecumseh branch of the Allen County Public Library. Check out these amazing old pictures courtesy of the ACPL!